Having harangued the rap establishment to an extent that he could no longer be ignored or dismissed, Lil B is moving on to new territories. The next genre ripe for his ad-libbed, self-obsessed, endlessly positive brand of inquisition? Why, classical music, of course.

Last night the Berkeley-bred hip-hop misfit Tweeted, "THE BASEDGOD" HAS MADE HISTORY TODAY HE PRODUCED AND COMPOSED HIS WHOLE CLASSICAL MUSIC ALBUM! HISTORY!! "CHOICES AND FLOWERS" - Lil B." Yes, you read that right: He's calling it a "classical music album" (and making us wonder if B knows that an "album" isn't exactly a standard unit in classical music). But then, Choices and Flowers isn't a mixtape -- not just one more entry in Lil B's sprawling collection of free songs. Instead, it's an album in the old-fashioned sense: One of those things you have to pay for.

More >>

So mysterious R&B outfit the Weeknd announced its first S.F. show ever yesterday. Tickets for the May 8 set at the Fillmore went onsale at 10 a.m. this morning, and sold out in less than 10 minutes, according to eager seekers on Twitter.

When shows sell out that fast, weird things start to happen. Weird things like people promising to pay multiple times the face value of the tickets and/or give their bodies in exchange for going to the show: "I willing to trade sex (1 hr) to go see the weeknd.....5'5...140 pds....nice ass and titts. Im really serious," reads one offer placed earlier this afternoon on Craigslist, along with this very NSFW picture:

More >>

You are not actually totally bored of rock music. But occasionally, for brief periods, you kinda are. (It's okay.) And how do you know when you've reached your limit of longhairs and Les Pauls? Because you notice some or all of the following signs:

10. Knowing that Dave Grohl is a nice guy no longer keeps you from feeling viciously dismissive toward him and his music.

More >>

"...There will be justice for the unborn/ Factories back on our shores..."

Say what you will about Obama -- it is impossible to imagine the current president inspiring a song as terrifically awful as "Game On," which this Oklahoma group called First Love just released supporting the candidacy of Mr. Rogers' evil twin, Rick Santorum.

From the first line ("We've finally got a man who will stand for what is right") to the second ("We've got a man who understands that God gave the Bill of Rights") to the third ("Oh, there is hope for our nation again/ maybe the first time since we had Ronald Reagan"), "Game On" comes across like a cruel parody, or a bad joke. It can't be real, you think. Surely, this was penned by a cynical New Yorker with ties to Saturday Night Live, trying to make Santorum supporters look facile.

But no. It actually appears to be a cheerful, sincere song sung by a pair of Tulsa ladies endorsing a grinning bigot who wants to force his medieval values on their vaginas and the entire country. But they're so damn happy about it. They want you to stand up, and sing, people! Hope is here! Rick Santorum is running to save the world, return white males to their rightful position of omnipotence, and ensure that the nation's women are left free to cook, procreate, and write dopey folk songs!

View this terrifying glimpse of our eight-children-per-family future (and read its entire lyrics) after the jump.

More >>

What is about the holidays that makes disgruntled musicians and their heirs so litigious? Only yesterday we reported that the children of S.F. jazzman Vince Guaraldi are suing Concord Music Group (which merged with Berkeley's Fantasy Records in 2004) for more than $2 million in unpaid royalty's from Guaraldi's work on the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas.

And now, the remaining members of R&B group the Dells -- whose biggest hit was 1965's "Oh What A Night" -- are suing their former label for more than $75,000. In a suit filed against Vee-Jay Partnership yesterday in San Francisco district court, the four members say the money should have ended up in state coffers, where they could claim it.

More >>

Given the time of year, you've probably seen -- and heard -- A Charlie Brown Christmas recently. The 1965 animated TV special's celebrated soundtrack was performed by noted San Francisco jazzman Vince Guaraldi's trio, and recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley.

But for the pianist and composer's children, the 2011 holiday season hasn't been carefree: Just before Christmas, they filed a lawsuit against the Concord Music Group to reclaim what they say are more than $2 million in unpaid royalties from the Charlie Brown recording, according to a story today in the Daily Journal, a California legal newspaper.

Journal reporter Erica E. Phillips writes that Vince's children, David and Dia Guaraldi, filed a lawsuit on Friday claiming that Concord Music, which merged with Fantasy Records in 2004,

underpaid royalties on digital sales of their music, which they say should have been calculated at a 50 percent "master licensed" rate rather than the usual 12 to 20 percent royalty earned on a physical "record sold."

More >>

Inside the DNA Lounge

You've seen the story: SF's DNA Lounge claims French house DJ Alan Braxe urinated onstage during his headlining set at Blow UP SF last Friday. Braxe says no such thing happened, and that the whole thing is a PR stunt to bring attention to the club.

But in an interview with All Shook Down this afternoon, DNA Lounge General Manager Barry Synoground insisted that Braxe peed while on the DJ platform not once, but three times during his set -- each time into a drink cup, which he eventually spilled onto the floor and the curtain, causing about $400 in damage.

"About 10 minutes or so into his set, he turned around, squatted down, and pissed into a cup," Synoground tells All Shook Down. "Then again later, then again later. And he was kind enough to overturn at least one of those cups that he had filled onto the DJ platform and curtain. He just set it aside, and then while he was DJing, he knocked it over."

More >>

Braxe

Yesterday, we told you about the rather strange battle between French house DJ Alan Braxe and folks at SF's DNA Lounge, who say they kicked Braxe out of the club during the middle of his set on Friday for urinating on a curtain behind the stage.

Braxe's representatives disputed the accusation yesterday, saying he didn't pee "on any curtain or wall."

But now, Braxe has posted a full response to the allegations on his Facebook wall. Here it is:

I want to personally address the rumors that are going around various online media and press, in which I am accused of "pissing on a back-wall curtain" during a DJ set in San Francisco.

Firstly, these rumors are FALSE.

I DID NOT and WOULD NOT ever urinate on or damage a venue's or anybody else's property. The accusation of a "bladder problem" is also false, and offensive!

More >>

Alan Braxe

Update: Via Pitchfork, a rep for Alan Braxe issued the following statement:

"I would just like to confirm this is a complete fabrication of the truth and Alain in no way urinated on any curtain or wall. This is a personal attack on Alain and something we will be taking very seriously indeed."

Original post: Looks like someone really, really had to go while performing onstage at DNA Lounge this past Friday. But rather than, say, pulling a Fergie and just wetting his pants -- or walking to the potty -- French house DJ Alan Braxe allegedly turned around and relieved himself on the club's back-wall curtain.

That's the story given by club owner Jamie Zawinski in this post on the DNA Lounge's website:

Turns out that our headlining DJ last night, Alan Braxe, has a bladder control problem. That's the generous explanation for why he decided, in the middle of his DJ set, to turn around and piss on our back-wall curtain instead of using the restroom which is twenty feet away.

More >>

The Grateful Dead inside 710 Ashbury

A new itch for merchandising, a fanbase now on the side of life that comes with plenty of cash to spend on nostalgia, and a poverty of original ideas coming out of Hollywood: What's a hugely adored band like the Grateful Dead to do?

Why, commission an Across the Universe-style film featuring its original music, that's what.

Deadline Hollywood reports today that the legendary S.F. psychedelic rock outfit -- which announced a new push for merchandising to fans earlier this year -- has representatives working to produce a flick that will feature its songs. But the film won't be a biopic -- rather, it will be a fictional narrative about San Francisco's Haight Ashbury in the 1960s and early '70s, built around the music of the Grateful Dead.

More >>